Micro Review 16

 

Finding Bear by Hannah Gold. Illustrated by Levi Pinfold (Harper Collins)

I think that it was Kentishbookboy who first recommended Hannah Gold's books to me and while I'm not sure if he has grown out of them now I was very excited to see that April was back and off on another adventure with Bear in Svalbard.

This time April manages to convince her dad to be part of the adventure from the beginning as they return to Bear Island to make sure 'her' bear is safe after reports that a polar bear has been shot and injured.

Even with parental approval the book is full of adventure, peril, excitement and a bear cub... While you have to suspend a little belief for the story to work it is a magical read from start to finish and like the best books gets its message across without being at all didactic.

Pinfold's illustrations make this book even more special and I really hope that Gold's books become modern classics - and not because polar bears have become extinct and this is the only way to find out more about them.

Micro review 15

 

The Figurine by Victoria Hislop (Headline)

I was very lucky to win an advance copy of this in a Twitter competition and it has to be said that I abandoned everything else and just got stuck straight in - I'd only been back from Greece a matter of weeks but I was already homesick for the people and place so this just ticked so many boxes!

I really enjoyed Hislop's sweeping history of Greece from 1941-1970s (Those Who Are Loved) told from a family perspective but I did find the ending abrupt, and it left me wanting to know a lot more about the military Junta rule of the 1970s.

The Figurine isn't quite a sequel to the earlier book in that all of the characters are new, but it does pretty much pick up historically from where Those Who Are Loved ended which was great.

In this novel we follow Helena first as a child where she spends summers with her maternal grandparents in Athens where she becomes fluent Greek speaker while observing the politics of the time without understanding them. Her family decide that it is too dangerous for her to continue these visits eventually, but while a career in the sciences beckons, Helena never forgets her Greek roots.

Life continues and Helena has the opportunity to return to Greece, first as a volunteer on an archaeological dig with her new boyfriend, and then thanks to an inheritance as an expat returning home and there discovering her family's past.

The title 'Figurine' refers to the second theme of the book and is about the topical subject of who owns ancient artefacts and the problem of their illegal trade.

I say topical as it was as I was reading The Figurine the story about the curator at the British Museum stealing items from the collection broke - sometimes books are incredibly timely and not written after the events to highlight a story!

I loved this book totally, I did spot the little twist in the tale coming, but this isn't a 'who dunnit' book, it is Helena's story and all of the events fit in totally with her narrative.

Another book for my best of 2023 list and I really need to re-read Hislop's earlier books to give myself that real Greek buzz as winter approaches!